People usually can’t get up close to a black bear, a bobcat or even a deer.
A new life-sized diorama unveiled recently at the Navarino Nature Center will help create a more personal experience for nature lovers, especially the school groups that visit.
“We wanted to redo the classroom, and we wanted to make it a little more visually appealing,” nature center employee Julie Wilber said.
A three-wall mural painted by Wilber shows some of the animals that can be found in the Navarino Wildlife Area. Complementing the mural and making it three-dimensional exhibit are mounted animals, some of them stuffed by Al Meiers, a full-time taxidermist residing in Shiocton.
Two of the animals have tragic biographies.
The nature center received a black bear cub in January 2004 after the Department of Natural Resources found it dead. The cub had been illegally shot, and its right foot had been cut off.
Another animal in the diorama, a bobcat, was found alive by DNR rangers in 2001 between Shawano and Gresham after it had stepped into a leg trap. The animal was too injured to be saved.
In both cases, the animals were donated to the nature center for their educational value.
The mural took about 40 to 50 hours, Wilber estimated, with the work done over two months. She has painted murals for the last 15 years.
“I use my artistic ability in a lot of different ways,” Wilber said.
Meiers had previously done taxidermy work for the nature center and was eager to get involved with setting up the diorama, especially the landscape. He has been a professional taxidermist for more than 30 years.
“When I was a young guy, I shot a duck in the middle of a lake,” Meiers said. “I wanted to get it mounted, so I talked to a taxidermist at the time and then wanted to learn how to do it. It is an art form.”
It can be tough in some places to tell where the mural ends and the real landscape begins. For example, an adult black bear can be seen coming out of a cave in Wilber’s painting, and the mounted bobcat that died in 2001 rests atop a painted log.
“I knew that we had a bear head and two cubs,” Wilber said. “I wanted to figure out how to make it work.”
Children seeing the mounted animals were often frightened by the creatures, according to nature center staff. Wilber said the mural helps to decrease the fear factor.
“It’s a little more friendly atmosphere for the kids to see the animals in their environment instead of just a bear on the floor,” Wilber said. “Seeing it in a habitat makes it less scary and more educational.”
Neither Wilber nor Meiers was sure how the project would turn out.
“I always enjoy doing this because you never know what it looks like until it’s done,” Meiers said. “You kind of have an idea, but like with any art work, you start out thinking it’ll look like this and then it’s like ta-da.”
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